The Commentariat -- January 15, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Heather Stewart of the Guardian: "Theresa May has sustained the heaviest parliamentary defeat of any British prime minister in the democratic era after MPs rejected her Brexit deal by a resounding majority of 230. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, immediately moved to sieze the initiative, tabling a vote of no confidence in the government.... Brexit-supporting Conservatives joined with opposition parties and the Democratic Unionist party to trounce the government in the 'meaningful vote', which the prime minister delayed before Christmas in the vain hope of winning over waverers. Following the defeat, May immediately invited a formal vote of no confidence in her own government, which she said would be voted on as soon as Wednesday." ...
... Brian Williams of MSNBC (surprisingly) introduced the Brexit vote news by noting that the Brexit campaign was Putin's first big foray into destabilizing Europe. What he didn't mention was Trump's vociferous support for Brexit & his collaboration/collusion with its advocates like Nigel Farage.
New York Times reporters are live-updating William Barr's Senate confirmation hearing. ...
... The Washington Post's live updates are here. ...
... Marianne Levine & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Attorney General nominee William Barr ... told Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that he did not think Mueller 'would be involved in a witch hunt,' a term Trump has used repeatedly to deride the investigation. Barr also told the Judiciary Committee that he agreed with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation -- the primary reason Trump soured on Sessions."
Nice Try, Senators. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Republicans blocked a House-passed package to reopen the federal government for a second time in as many weeks on Tuesday. Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Ben Cardin (Md.) asked for consent to take up a package of bills that would reopen the federal government. One bill would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, while the other would fund the rest of the impacted departments and agencies through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. Under Senate rules, any senator can ask for consent to vote on or pass a bill, but any senator can object. [Mitch] McConnell blocked the two bills, saying the Senate wouldn't 'participate in something that doesn't lead to an outcome.'" ...
... Nice Try, Trump. Jordan Fabian & Scott Wong of the Hill: "No Democrats will attend a lunch on Tuesday with President Trump designed to reach an agreement to end the government shutdown and fund a border wall, the White House said. Trump had invited several moderate House Democrats to the White House in an effort to undermine Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has refused to grant Trump his demand for $5.7 billion in wall funding. But the group turned down the invitation.... In a private meeting Monday night, Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told fellow leaders they were fine with rank-and-file members meeting with Trump, according to a source in the meeting. Pelosi joked to Hoyer: 'They can see what we've been dealing with. And they'll want to make a citizen's arrest.'" ...
... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "The Federal Aviation Administration is bringing thousands of furloughed inspectors and engineers back to work as the partial government shutdown drags on, the agency said on Tuesday. The agency's announcement came after unions representing aviation safety inspectors and air traffic controllers raised concerns that the lengthy shutdown was eroding the safety of the nation's air travel system. It is one of the largest changes made by a government agency since the shutdown last month to address the need to maintain an essential service."
Great being with the National Champion Clemson Tigers last night at the White House. Because of the Shutdown I served them massive amounts of Fast Food (I paid), over 1000 hamberders etc. Within one hour, it was all gone. Great guys and big eaters! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Tuesday ...
... How Many Hamberders Would a Hamberdler Buy if a Hamberdler Would Be Trump? Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... an amusing tweet ... Donald Trump posted Tuesday morning illustrates just how easily he exaggerates and contradicts himself.... Speaking to reporters just before players showed up, Trump proudly displayed the spread of 'great American food,' and said, 'we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries -- all of our favorite foods.' Three hundred hamburgers is a lot of burgers, even for a football team. But it apparently wasn't enough for Trump. Within a matter of minutes, the number grew exponentially. Addressing the players, Trump claimed to have purchased 1,000 hamburgers.... On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted that the number of burgers he purchased had grown again to 'over 1000 hamberders [sic] etc.' (He later reposted the tweet without the typo.)" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rupar writes, "Photos of the event suggest something along the lines of the lower number is accurate." Yeah but the pix don't show the 700 Big Macs Trump ordered be sent directly to the residence.
Michael Wines of the New York Times: "A federal judge blocked the Commerce Department on Tuesday from adding a question on American citizenship to the 2020 census, handing a legal victory to critics who accused the Trump administration of trying to turn the census into a tool to advance Republican political fortunes. The ruling marks the opening round in a legal battle with potentially profound ramifications for federal policy and for politics at all levels, one that seems certain to reach the Supreme Court before the printing of census forms begins this summer. In a lengthy and stinging ruling, Judge Jesse M. Furman of the United States District Court in Manhattan said that Wilbur L. Ross Jr., the commerce secretary, committed 'a veritable smorgasbord' of violations of federal procedural law when he ordered the citizenship question added."
*****
A reminder that if you pay quarterly federal taxes, today is the deadline for the fourth quarter. I e-paid last night; I wasn't sure the site would work, what with the IRS being furloughed & all, but it turns out the gummit is still happy to take your money any way it can get it. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Monday that he has rejected a proposal by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to temporarily reopen the government in an effort to jump-start talks with Democratic lawmakers on funding a border wall. 'I did reject it,' Mr. Trump said of the proposal, speaking to reporters as he boarded Marine One outside of the White House, en route to delivering a speech to a farm convention in New Orleans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Still Not Ready for His Close-up. Michelle Goldberg: "Trump has turned out to be the Norma Desmond of authoritarians, a senescent has-been whose delusions are propped up by obsequious retainers. From his fantasy world in the White House, he barks dictatorial and often illegal orders, floats conspiracy theories, tweets insults and lies unceasingly. But much of the time he's not fully in charge. He has the instincts of a fascist but lacks both the discipline and the loyal lieutenants he'd need to create true autocracy. That doesn't mean, however, that the country isn't coming undone.... As of this writing, the president has rejected every way out of the government shutdown save full capitulation by House Democrats.... The shutdown throws our crisis into high relief. For the first two years, Trump destroyed American norms, standards and conventions. Now he's cavalierly destroying American lives." ...
... "M.I.A. MITCH." Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The man who declared in 2014 that he's 'the guy that's gotten us out of shutdowns' is facing mounting pressure, 25 days into this year's longest-running government closure, to lend that expert touch to this stubborn impasse. The pressure is coming not just from Democrats but from unpaid federal workers, including from his home state of Kentucky. Some workers are lining the streets of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Lexington office, holding posters that read: 'Mitch give us a vote on the floor' and '5 federal prisons in KY = thousands without pay." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Once again, Mitch threw in his lot with the Wrong Guy, and now the Wrong Guy has left Mitch in an untenable position, too. And don't think the Wrong Guy gives a flying fuck.
Dangerous Times -- This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Julian Barnes & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "There are few things that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia desires more than the weakening of NATO, the military alliance among the United States, Europe and Canada that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression for 70 years. Last year, President Trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying NATO: the withdrawal of the United States. Senior administration officials told The New York Times that several times over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared Mr. Trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president had set. In the days around a tumultuous NATO summit meeting last summer, they said, Mr. Trump told his top national security officials that he did not see the point of the military alliance.... Now, the president's repeatedly stated desire to withdraw from NATO is raising new worries among national security officials amid growing concern about Mr. Trump's efforts to keep his meetings with Mr. Putin secret from even his own aides, and an F.B.I. investigation into the administration's Russia ties."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post points out that Mike Pompeo also offered up only a non-denial denial when asked about the NYT report that the FBI had been investigating Trump as a possible national security threat. His non-answer, which he essentially repeated in response to a follow-up question about whether or not he knew about the FBI investigation: "I'm not going to comment on New York Times stories, but I'll certainly say this: The -- the notion that President Trump is a threat to American national security is absolutely ludicrous." Blake writes, "... given Pompeo's proximity to all this -- as both secretary of state and then-CIA director -- he's in a unique position to offer the most ironclad denial of basically anybody not named Trump or Mueller.... The fact that Pompeo wouldn't quite go there might be more significant even than Trump's non-denial-turned-actual-denial." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's legal team rebuffed special counsel Robert Mueller's request in recent weeks for an in-person session with Trump to ask follow-up questions. The request was made after Trump's team submitted written answers to a limited number of questions from Mueller's team focusing on before Trump was in office.... The Trump team appears to have hardened its position." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If it's true that Trump has been a target of Mueller's investigation, I don't see why Trump would agree to an interview. Even the president* has a Fifth-Amendment right, and he's almost guaranteed to incriminate himself.
Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "The day after Comey was fired, [FBI attorney Lisa Page & her lover FBI counterintelligence officer Peter Strzok] exchanged a message that has drawn the interest of Republicans. It said, 'And we need to open the case we've been waiting on now while Andy is acting.' In her [closed-door] testimony [before a House committee], Lisa Page confirmed that 'Andy' was a reference to ... Andrew McCabe. In her testimony Page ... confirms that 'the case we've been waiting on' means that even prior to Comey's firing, the FBI had been considering opening an investigation into the president specifically. This is confirmation of what I've said all along, which was that the intelligence community has long considered Donald Trump as a possible Russian agent. But ... the inquisitors didn't understand what the investigation was about and Page was not allowed to tell them." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth noting that Comey, McCabe & Strzok have all been fired, as was Jeff Sessions. Page left the FBI, as did James Baker, whom Congressional Republicans charged, apparently without evidence, of leaking the Steele dossier. Trump planned to fire Robert Mueller. He has repeatedly disparaged Mueller's investigators, the FBI in general & Rod Rosenstein in particular. It's pretty hard not to suspect that most or all of these firings were predicated not on these officials' misdeeds but on their efforts to investigate Donald Trump.
At the Kleptocracy's Ball. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "Private donors put up $107 million to usher Donald J. Trump into office in style two years ago, and it is now clear just how enthusiastically his inaugural committee went to town with it. There was $10,000 for makeup for 20 aides at an evening inaugural event. There was another $30,000 in per diem payments to dozens of contract staff members, in addition to their fully covered hotel rooms, room service orders, plane tickets and taxi rides, including some to drop off laundry. The bill from the Trump International Hotel was more than $1.5 million.... Over all, the Trump team's spending appears 'astronomical,' said Emmett S. Beliveau, who was chief executive of Mr. Obama's first inaugural committee.... Disclosure of the spending details comes at a time when the inaugural committee is facing legal scrutiny over the donations that funded it. Inaugural committees are required to document every donation with the Federal Election Commission, and the Trump team's reports are now under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Investigators are also looking into whether any foreign donations, which are illegal in the United States, were passed through Americans, and whether any donations went unrecorded
Katie Benner of the New York Times: "William P. Barr, President Trump's nominee for attorney general, promised on Monday that he would allow the special counsel to continue his investigation, seeking to allay Democrats' fears that he might shut down the inquiry. 'It is in the best interest of everyone -- the president, Congress, and, most importantly, the American people -- that this matter be resolved by allowing the special counsel to complete his work,' Mr. Barr said in written testimony that he plans to deliver on Tuesday at the start of his two-day confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.... But Mr. Barr also included a subtle caveat, limiting his assurances about the Mueller investigation to the issues under his control:... That qualification could be important because Mr. Barr has long advanced a philosophy of strong executive powers under which any administration decision is ultimately the president's to make. His views also include the notion that the president is the nation's top law-enforcement official, not the attorney general." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: "If President* Trump tells me to knee-cap my old pal Bob Mueller, I have a sledge hammer at the ready." ...
I read your memorandum with great surprise. [In all my years reviewing nominations, I have never seen a nominee write] such an in depth legal memorandum for no reason. -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in a letter to Bill Barr (section is brackets is paraphrased) ...
... Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "Attorney General nominee William Barr shared a controversial memo last year with nearly all of ... Donald Trump's lawyers concluding that an aspect of special counsel Robert Mueller's case could be 'fatally misconceived,' Barr acknowledged Monday. Barr's 19-page memo -- which concluded that Trump's publicly reported interactions with ex-FBI Director James Comey could not constitute obstruction of justice -- was addressed to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Steve Engel and released as a part of Barr's Senate questionnaire last month. But it was previously unclear who else had seen it. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham Monday night, Barr said that he had sent it to White House special counsel Emmet Flood, Solicitor General Noel Francisco and his former Justice Department colleague Pat Cipollone who is now White House counsel. He also discussed the issues raised in the memo with Trump lawyers Marty and Jane Raskin and Jay Sekulow. In addition he sent a copy, or had a conversation about the contents of the memo with Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Jared Kushner. In Tuesday's testimony, Barr will say he distributed the memo 'broadly' so that other lawyers 'would have the benefit of my views.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The memo, of course, was Barr's job application essay, and he wanted as many Trump whisperers as possible to see it. He didn't send a 19-page memo to Trump, of course, because Trump can't read anything longer than half a page with a lot of white space, large print & bullet points, but de Vogue reports "Barr discussed the memo with Trump prior to his nomination...."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: One reason the Senate will definitely confirm Bill Barr: every one of them knows he's the best Trump can get. Still, there's something essential I don't get & I think senators should ask him: why would you even take this lousy job? Maybe you want to be "relevant" again, but relevance is relative. Every single person in this administration or who has left -- sometimes by being escorted out the door on the arms of armed guards -- comes out with a ruined reputation. You won't be a week in the job before your own boss publicly humiliates you. And that's only the beginning. You can count on repeated invitations from our House neighbors to a grilling in the hot seat. You'll probably have to hire your own personal attorney. "Attorney General in Trump Administration" is not something anyone would put on hisrésumé. ...
... Josh Lederman of NBC News: "William Barr ... once warned of a lack of 'political supervision' at the Justice Department that he said gave too much leeway to career prosecutors and made it 'very easy for prosecutors to go hunting for scalps.' Barr, who will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, told an interviewer during compilation of an oral history of the George H.W. Bush administration in 2001 that 'the idea that the Department of Justice has to be independent' had gained ground following the Watergate scandal and risked going too far.... In the oral history..., Barr also spoke fervently about his opposition to the independent counsel law.... Although the law that Barr was criticizing is no longer in effect, it was replaced by a system that continues to face some of the same criticisms leveled by Barr and others." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Political supervision," huh? Another questions senators should ask Barr is, "Don't you think it's Trump who needs supervision?" It would be hilarious if Barr waffled on this a bit to try to please both Trump & the Senate, and Trump responded in a huff of indignation by withdrawing Barr's nomination. ...
... Okay, here are some real questions members of the Judiciary Committee should ask Barr, questions that have been asked of nominees before: ...
... Mikhaila Fogel, et al., of Lawfare: "The controversy over Barr boils down to a simple anxiety: Given his public statements about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference, his actions with respect to it and his known views on matters of executive power, is he the proper person to oversee the Mueller probe?... Twice in 1973, the committee confronted nominees to head the Justice Department as the Watergate investigation was unfolding -- first when President Nixon nominated Elliot Richardson and second when, following the Saturday Night Massacre, he appointed William Saxbe.... In both cases, the hearings were dominated by senators seeking confidence that the new attorney general would allow an independent and impartial investigation of Watergate to go forward to completion." The writers propose "15 questions drawn from those hearings which senators may wish to pose to Barr[.]"
... "Donald Trump & His Team of Morons." Paul Krugman: "To be a modern conservative is to spend your life inside what amounts to a cult, barely exposed to outside ideas or even ways of speaking. Inside that cult, contempt for ordinary working Americans is widespread.... So is worship of wealth. And it can be hard for cult members to remember that you don't talk that way to outsiders. Then there's the Trump effect. Normally working for the president of the United States is a career booster.... Trump' presidency, however, is so chaotic, corrupt and potentially compromised by his foreign entanglements that anyone associated with him gets tainted -- which is why after only two years he has already left a trail of broken men and wrecked reputations in his wake."
... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court, without comment, turned away a challenge Monday to Matthew G. Whitaker's appointment as acting attorney general. Washington lawyer and Supreme Court practitioner Thomas C. Goldstein has intervened in cases in Nevada and Maryland to say that President Trump did not have the legal authority to appoint Whitaker, who had been chief of staff to Jeff Sessions when Trump forced out his attorney general in November. The justices denied the Nevada case and its attempt to substitute Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein for Whitaker. The Maryland case is still before a federal judge there.... Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, in coordination with Goldstein, has also challenged the validity of Whitaker's appointment as part of a pending case in federal court in Baltimore seeking to uphold a key section of the Affordable Care Act. U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander has not yet ruled on the state's motion to replace Whitaker with Rosenstein."
Erin Banco, et al., of the Daily Beast: "The Special Counsel's Office and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are scrutinizing a meeting involving former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, one-time National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and dozens of foreign officials, according to three sources familiar with the investigations. The breakfast event ... took place ... at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18, 2017.... About 60 people were invited, including diplomats from governments around the world.... The breakfast has come under scrutiny by federal prosecutors in Manhattan as part of their probe into whether the Trump inaugural committee misspent funds and if donors tried to buy influence in the White House.... The Special Counsel's Office is also looking at the breakfast as part of its investigation into whether foreigners contributed money to the Trump inaugural fund and PAC by possibly using American intermediaries.... Robert Mueller's team has asked Flynn about the event.... Nunes ... has not been accused of any wrongdoing...."
More International Policy by Tweet. Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "President Trump threatened Turkey on Sunday with harsh economic sanctions if it attacks Kurdish forces in Syria after American troops withdraw from the country in the coming months. 'Will devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds,' Mr. Trump said on Twitter, suggesting that there would be a 20-mile safe zone around the group after American forces leave. He added, 'Likewise, do not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey.' Mr. Trump's tweets marked the first public threat toward Turkey, a NATO ally, over the Kurds and seemed to offer a blanket of protection for the group, a band of American-backed militias that the Turkish government sees as terrorists." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... AND Screwing Things Up in the Process. John Hudson & Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo crisscrossed the Middle East this week to explain the U.S. military withdrawal from Syria, he repeated that he was 'confident' and 'optimistic' that he was nearing a deal with Turkey on a mutually agreeable exit plan. But a pugnacious tweet from President Trump on Sunday night vowing to 'devastate' the Turkish economy if Ankara attacks U.S.-backed Kurds revealed a much wider chasm between the two sides and prompted a new round of recriminations from Turkey. Hours later, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu blasted Trump's 'threatening language...,' adding: 'You will not get anywhere by threatening Turkey's economy.' The row marked the second time in a week that the White House has intervened in negotiations led by the State Department in a way that infuriated Turkey and caught U.S. diplomats flat-footed. In trying to explain Trump's tweets on Monday, Pompeo told reporters in Riyadh that he assumed Trump meant the United States would levy sanctions on Turkey if it attacked the Kurds but that he did not know for certain.... [Pompeo said] that he had not talked to Trump about the tweet." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Frida Ghitis in Politico Magazine: "The world has become hostage to the president's 280-character digital bursts. But the real-world consequences are all too real. Just ask a Syrian.... The Trump administration has staged quite a foreign policy spectacle in recent weeks, with top officials, including the president, publicly battling out differences over Syria -- over the future of the Middle East, in fact -- churning out a befuddling series of statements, counterstatements, affirmations and contradictions about what the U.S. intends to do, is already doing, or would never do.... The Syria policy show has become ... a case study on why the United States needs a functioning process for designing and implementing foreign policy. Without it, as the entire world can see, what results is an incoherent mess with the potential to further destabilize unstable regions, signaling that the United States is an undisciplined, unreliable and untrustworthy ally." Read on ...
... Juan Cole: "National Security Adviser John Bolton lied his face off when he told Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on his recent Mideast junket that he was sure Iran's leaders are dedicated to acquiring deliverable nuclear weapons. Nuclear security expert Joe Cirincione shredded Bolton over his false assertion, which is contradicted by UN inspectors and US intelligence. Bolton made sure to tell Netanyahu this so that Netanyahu could quote Bolton in his own fantasy-filled and inflammatory speeches urging an attack on Iran.... Ironically, when [Jim] Mattis first met Bolton, he joked that he had heard that he was 'the Devil.'... So then toward the end of his tenure Mattis found out that we weren’t wrong about Bolton, and he had been foolish to be so insouciant.... I'm not sure exactly what the Democratic House can do to forestall Bolton's peculiar Iranomania from plunging us into another generation of war and instability and bankruptcy. But they should do what they can to get the madman out of office." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization? -- Rep. Steve King, to the New York Times last week ...
... Watch the first minute (as marked on the video) wherein the Racist-in-Chief pretends he doesn't know who White Supremacist Rep. Steve King is & knows nothing about King's defense of white nationalism & white supremacy:
... Trip Gabriel, et al., of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders removed Representative Steve King of Iowa from the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees on Monday night as party officials scrambled to appear tough on racism and contain damage from comments Mr. King made to The New York Times questioning why white supremacy is considered offensive. The punishment came on a day when Mr. King was denounced by an array of Republican leaders, though not President Trump. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, suggested Mr. King find 'another line of work' and Senator Mitt Romney said he should quit. And the House Republicans, in an attempt to be proactive, stripped him of the committee seats in the face of multiple Democratic resolutions to censure Mr. King that are being introduced this week." ...
... ** Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "While it is heartening to see that King's antics have finally drawn a unified response of condemnation from the right, the reactions seem to miss the obvious point that there is little daylight between Steve King and ... Donald Trump.... Unlike King however, the president has the authority, by himself, to make his views into policy. From his travel ban to his child-separation policy to his revocation of protections for immigrants brought here as children, he has pursued discriminatory policies with a commitment he has shown for few other campaign promises. Even now, the federal government remains shut down, its workforce denied payment for their labor, all in pursuit of the construction of a taxpayer funded symbolic monument of disapproval towards immigrants of Latin American descent.... On Sunday night, Trump tweeted a column from Pat Buchanan arguing that the president should seize executive power and build the wall without approval from Congress.... Such a barrier is made necessary, Buchanan argues, because of the increasing diversity of the United States.... 'The more multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual America becomes -- the less it looks like Ronald Reagan's America -- the more dependably Democratic it will become,' he argues in the same column." ...
... As Chris Hayes of MSNBC pointed out, Mitch McConnell & his Congressional confreres are still pursuing King & Buchanan's ethno-nationalist policy to build that wall. At the expense of a working government, I would add.
Tom Vanden Brook of USA Today: "The Pentagon will send a fresh deployment of active-duty troops to the southern border at the request of officials from the Department of Homeland Security. Late Monday, the Pentagon also announced that deployments of active-duty troops would extend through September. The new contingent of troops will include combat engineers to fortify border crossings and aviation units to help ferry Border Patrol agents, according to a Defense Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The troops will also help with surveillance at the border, according to the Pentagon statement." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So take some pictures of engineers "fortifying border crossings," label them, "Army troops build Great Wall of Trump to Keep Murderers & Rapists out of USA," send the pix to Trump so he thinks he "won" along with the bill to re-open the government.
Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Ivanka Trump ... will play a role in helping to select the next head of the World Bank, the White House said Monday. Ms. Trump, who had been rumored to be a contender for the position herself, will not be a candidate, a Trump administration official said. But she will assist the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, in choosing a successor to Jim Yong Kim, the current president of the World Bank who announced last week he would be stepping down. Mr. Mnuchin called Ms. Trump last week and asked her if she would be involved, an administration official said. Jessica Ditto, a White House spokeswoman, said Ms. Trump was asked because 'she's worked closely with the World Bank's leadership for the past two years.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What Jessica Ditto says isn't very important, but I am obligated to cut & paste the phrase, "Ditto, a White House spokeswoman."
Richard Hasen in Slate: "The Democrats' first order of business as they took control of the 116th Congress was introducing H.R. 1, the colossal 'For the People Act.' This 571-page behemoth of a bill covering voting rights, campaign finance reform, ethics improvements, and more was a perfect reminder of just how much power the Constitution gives Congress to make elections better in this country and, sadly, of how partisan the question of election reform has become.... The bill now has 221 co-sponsors, all Democrats, including almost every Democrat in the House. It's disheartening that bipartisan movement on election reform is no longer possible and that few of the significant improvements in the bill stand a chance of becoming law until Democrats have control of the Senate and the presidency. Even then some of its provisions could be blocked by a conservative-leaning Supreme Court. But if and when Democrats ever do return to full power in Washington, H.R. 1 should remain the top priority. Though there is room for some improvements, the 'For the People Act' would go an enormous way toward repairing our badly broken democracy." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is why you vote for Democrats even when they're jerks.
Thomas Novelly of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of the fiercest political critics of socialized medicine, will travel to Canada later this month to get hernia surgery. Paul ... said the operation is related to an injury in 2017 when his neighbor, Rene Boucher, attacked him while Paul was mowing his lawn. He is scheduled to have the outpatient operation at the privately adminstered Shouldice Hernia Hospital in Thornhill, Ontario during the week of Jan. 21, according to documents from Paul's civil lawsuit against Boucher filed in Warren Circuit Court.... While Shouldice Hernia Hospital is privately owned -- like many Canadian hospitals -- it receives a majority of its funding from the Ontario government and accepts the Ontario's Hospital Insurance Plan."
Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Joseph Lieberman, the former Connecticut senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate, is working for a company he once called a national security threat. In November, Lieberman registered as a lobbyist for ZTE, a Chinese telecom giant with close links to the country's government." Mrs. McC: Al Gore is one of the few Democratic presidential candidates I did nothing to help except to vote for him. Joe is why.
Alice Ollstein of Politico: "A federal judge in Pennsylvania put a nationwide block on Trump administration rules that would have allowed virtually any employer to deny workers' birth control coverage, one day after a federal judge halted the rules in a group of states. In her ruling Monday afternoon, Judge Wendy Beetlestone sided with a group of Democratic attorneys general challenging the administration's policy as unconstitutional and in violation of the Affordable Care Act. The Trump rules, which would allow employers broad leeway to claim a religious or moral objection to covering birth control, were set to take effect Monday. Beetlestone's ruling is more sweeping than a similar decision Sunday night in a different court. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Northern California issued a partial injunction blocking the policy from taking effect in 13 states and Washington, D.C., that were behind a separate lawsuit."
Beyond the Beltway
Jesse McKinley & Vivian Wang of the New York Times: "After years of lagging behind other states, New York radically overhauled its system of voting and elections on Monday, passing several bills that would allow early voting, preregistration of minors, voting by mail and sharp limits on the influence of money. The bills, which were passed by the State Legislature on Monday evening, bring New York in line with policies in other liberal bastions like California and Washington, and they would quiet, at least for a day, complaints about the state's antiquated approach to suffrage. Their swift passage marked a new era in the State Capitol. Democrats, who assumed full control this month after decades in which the Legislature was split, say they will soon push through more of their priorities, from strengthening abortion rights to approving the Child Victims Act, which would make it easier for victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their assailants.... Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat elected to a third term in November, is expected to sign the package of voting bills, which would also merge state and primary elections into the same day; New York was the only state that held separate state and federal primary elections last year, potentially depressing voter turnout."
Way Beyond
Heather Stewart of the Guardian: British PM "Theresa May appears to be on course for a crushing defeat in the House of Commons as Britain's bitterly divided MPs prepare to give their verdict on her Brexit deal in the 'meaningful vote' on Tuesday. With Downing Street all but resigned to losing by a significant margin, Guardian analysis pointed to a majority of more than 200 MPs against the prime minister. Labour sources said that unless May made major unexpected concessions, any substantial margin against her would lead Jeremy Corbyn to call for a vote of no confidence in the government -- perhaps as soon as Tuesday night. But since Conservative MPs are unlikely to offer Corbyn the backing he would need to win a no-confidence vote, he would then come under intense pressure to swing Labour's weight behind a second referendum. Cabinet ministers have not yet been told how May plans to keep the Brexit process on track if her deal is defeated – and they remain split on how she should proceed."
News Lede
New York Times: "Carol Channing, whose incandescent performances as the gold-digging Lorelei Lee in 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and the matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi in 'Hello, Dolly!' made her a Broadway legend, died early Tuesday at her home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. She was 97."